User blog:Grunty89/The weapons of Battlefield 1
__NOEDITSECTION__ So. Battlefield 1 is out. A pretty good World War I-styled shooter with the standard mechanics of Battlefield games. But this is not what I wanted to talk about. My main focus over here in this post... is the weapons. For some reason, DICE actually decided to add some pretty questionable and/or odd choices into the game for the player's use. I'm going to take a look at the more... questionable and odd choices. Pistols Nothing special here, except for some pistols in the entire roster that stand out among the rest. ;The Kolibri Okay. Let's face it. DICE probably put this tiny pistol in here for laughs. And I really mean for laughs. It is actually available for use in multiplayer. Not that it is practical or anything, but the weapon is just... needless to say, pathetic. But what can you expect with a weapon of that size? It does 1 (?!) damage on a body shot, and 25 (?!?!) on a headshot. And because players have 100 health... you're gonna need up to 100 shots to kill someone with this thing. Good thing you get a lot of ammo on spawn. ;The Mars Now, now, DICE. You chose this thing and put it in the game. Good that you acknowledge that there are rare weapons like these. This was the most powerful pistol for its time (though in game and probably theoretically, the older Gasser M1870 is more powerful). Mr. Hugh Gabbett-Fairfax over here wanted his pistol to replace the older Webley revolver we all know. It didn't work. Why, you may ask? Well... the Mars had way too much recoil, was way too complex, and everyone who tested the thing unanimously agreed that they wouldn't want to shoot this hulking piece of metal again. Mr. Gabbett-Fairfax over here didn't listen to all the complaints everyone had been making about this design, and lo and behold; his company went under after only about 80 were made. Submachine guns More stand out here. ;The Beretta Model 1918 Now this is an old piece. Well, DICE couldn't name the weapon "Beretta Model 1918" due to Beretta's name trademark. It's got low damage, a pretty small magazine size of only 25 rounds and pretty bad damage drop off at range. However, do not fret. This weapon has an absurdly high rate of fire. The shocking part about that rate of fire... is that the Model 1918 actually fires this fast in real life. It was the second true submachine gun to enter combat, beating the earlier Bergmann MP 18 by a few months. ;The Hellriegel 1915 Now this is a really obscure piece. Not very much is known about this thing, but gotta give tips to DICE for including it. The weapon has a water-cooled barrel jacket up front, and just like machine guns in game, can overheat. It may look belt-fed, but it really isn't; the "belt" is just a flexible tube which helps feeds rounds into the magazine with the assistance of the spring-tensioned drum. Of all the submachine guns, the Hellriegel has an amazing capacity of 60 rounds, more than any of the submachine guns in game. ;The Villar-Perosa Okay, time to make something clear. The Villar-Perosa seen in game... is not a real Villar-Perosa, which is shown in the image on the right. The "Villar-Perosa" as seen in game seems to be based on a mockup meant to resemble a Villar-Perosa, as seen in the movie The Sicilian; the real Villar-Perosa did not have a pistol grip or foregrip, and was not meant to be used as a ground weapon, with its intended use being as a submachine gun fired from aircraft, which, quite obviously, judging by its cartridge, proved ineffective. Looks aside, this weapon has one of the highest rates of fire, if not the highest rate of fire, of any of the weapons in game. What's also shocking is that the real Villar-Perosa also fired this fast. Looks like DICE has done their homework on these weapons. Shotguns Nothing of note at the moment. Rifles Again, DICE has really shown us they are giving us some questionable and/or odd firearms. ;The Cei-Rigotti Who knew this very obscure rifle would make it into this game? Anyway, the Cei-Rigotti is one of the first, if not the first, select-fire rifles ever made. It even demonstrates this capability in game. Production of the weapon was scarce, and only a few survive. As a result, the Cei-Rigotti is highly valuable. While it only has a 10-round capacity in game, it does have rather high damage, and is actually quite easy to use. ;The Luger Selbstlader Now this is a very obscure piece, probably even more obscure than the Hellriegel. Judging by the name, it is a self-loader, and because it was designed by Georg Luger, it has that fancy toggle-locking mechanism just like the renowned P08. Very little information is available about this weapon in real life, other than it being chambered in 7.92x57mm Mauser, but in-game, it has a five-round internal magazine. ;The Martini-Henry Wait wait wait. I'm pretty sure this weapon is kinda anachronistic and to be honest, kinda outdated by the time World War I hit. But it is powerful, I give it that. That .577 cartridge is great for giving hell to adversaries, but it only holds one round. It may have the longest one-hit kill range of any of the rifles in game, but if these were used in World War I, many more British soldiers would be dead by the time the war ended- oh wait. A gun historian just called. They said it was used in World War I. Never mind. ;The Mauser Selbstlader This weapon... is also rare. And pretty damn sought after. 25-round self-loader from a company with more experience with their legendary bolt-action rifles. It also has a weird reloading process which is also reflected in game. I guess DICE must have been following Forgotten Weapons. The M1916... is a little on the overpowered side however; it can kill a soldier in one shot to the head while most semi-automatic rifles in game usually take two hits. ;The Mondragón Not the most valuable rifle known, but it is quite an interesting weapon. Originally designed by Manuel Mondragón in the 1880s, it was a straight-pull bolt-action weapon. Later variants, such as the Model 1908 as depicted in game, were semi-automatic. As much as I like this weapon in real life, in game, it is pretty pathetic; it is one of the weakest rifles in game. Four headshots and the soldier still isn't dead. Okay. But who knows, it could just be my terrible accuracy... ;The Pieper carbine Rather obscure, and actually rather valuable. The Pieper is a Belgian 9-shot revolving carbine based on the gas-seal action of the Nagant M1895 revolver. It was known to be used by the Mexican police in the 1890s. Forgotten Weapons is known to have handled one of these carbines, but unfortunately, the sample was not in good working order, with certain parts missing or not working properly. ;The Huot Rare, rare and rare is the only thing I can say about this thing. An experimental project by Joseph Huot of Canada, the Huot was a gas-operated automatic rifle based on the Ross Mk III, with 33 parts shared between the two weapons. The weapon was trialed and continually refined, but before it could be adopted, the war ended and the entire project was dropped; by that time, Huot was already C$30,000 out of pocket. Machine guns Nothing of note. Launchers There's only one launcher in the entire game, and it is an interesting one. ;The Vickers-Crayford rocket gun Rare, rare and rare is also the only thing I can say about this thing. The Vickers-Crayford rocket– oh, I'm sorry. The, ahem, 1.59-inch Breech-Loading Vickers Q.F. Gun, Mk II, is the only launcher available in the game. While technically the Vickers-Crayford is not a rocket launcher because it used shells, it has been widely known as such despite its incapability to fire rockets. The weapon is pretty powerful, and can only be used while prone likely due to the high recoil this thing releases when fired. So there you have it. Weird and wacky weapons from Battlefield 1. It's actually kinda interesting to look back in history and see what stuff gun designers of yesteryear came up with. Article inspired by [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19hohCtdJ4Y this video by Forgotten Weapons]. UPDATE: Apparently, Ian from Forgotten Weapons' name is in the credits of Battlefield 1 as special thanks. Category:Blog posts